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The next town in my series of redevelopment success stories in Quakertown, PA. Pottstown area residents are all familiar with Quakertown. We even share Route 663.

Quakertown has benefited over the years, to some degree, by their proximity to the big cities in the Lehigh Valley. They are part of suburbia on heavily traveled Route 309. What many people think of when they get a visual of Quakertown is the “Big Box” sprawl on 309. However, there is more to Quakertown.

Quakertown Borough is 2.0 square miles and contained 8,931 residents according to the 2000 census. A 2009 estimate put the population of the borough at 8,672. The estimated median income for Quakertown in 2008 was $53,340. The 2008 estimated per capita income was $27,000. The City-data crime index for Quakertown in 2009 was 258.0, which is considered low.

This all sounds rather idyllic. Why not roll with it? However, the status quo was not good enough for Quakertown officials who felt they needed to get people excited about their downtown and what it has to offer. Honestly, I never thought there was much more to Quakertown than Route 309, if the truth be told. So now I am excited too!

Quakertown has come up with the all important “tag line” which is “Explore The Possibilities”. Kind of peeks your interest further, doesn’t it! I enjoy exploring! Now I feel the urge to drive up to Quakertown and venture into their downtown to “explore” the possibilities! Local officials want to make Quakertown a destination. To that end, they hired Delta Development Group of Mechanicsburg, PA to help lead them to the promised land of redevelopment. In addition, Quakertown has hired Marketing Solutions of Quakertown to help them identify and market their borough.

The $64,000 question: What kind of destination does Quakertown want to be? The winning answer is recreation, culture, shopping and dining. To that end a logo was carefully crafted incorporating these elements. Because Quakertown is strategically located on the edge of the Lehigh and Delaware valleys, they are marketing themselves in both areas.

Quakertown was once a manufacturing and commercial center. With the decline of industry, Quakertown is now a bedroom community and regional shopping destination. Quakertown has decided to work with the assets they have and improve upon them. Instead of crying over what once was, they are embracing what is.

One year ago, Roger Brooks visited York City and came up with 33 recommendations how downtown York could market itself and attract people. This idea should sound familiar to Pottstown residents after a ULI study and recommendations were made for Pottstown.

What did York do with these 33 recommendations? Do you suppose they ignored them or possibly took an expert at their word and went about trying to carry out these ideas? I know, sounds pretty zany, doesn’t it!

Mr. Brooks gave York a 3 – 5 year time frame to make the changes. Like Pottstown, York has a downtown entity similar to PDIDA, called Downtown Inc. Their Executive Director, Sonia Huntzinger reports they have completed 18 out of 33 recommendations in the first year!

Some of these recommendations, Pottstown has already completed (mainly the cosmetic ones). One unique recommendation, completed in October, was a “best of” guide. Downtown Inc. released a Downtown Destination guide which promotes downtown York!

Brooks recommended that York brand itself as “America’s Industrial Art and Design Capital”. The York County Economic Development Corp. has developed “Creativity Unleashed” to support this effort. The idea is to attract young professionals and artists to York along with tourism. A logo was developed to be used by organizations and companies in their advertising to help promote this rebranding.

How refreshing to see that the county and the city work together to achieve these goals. How refreshing to see the vigor with which York is embracing these recommendations for positive change.